Fire Whiskey in the Moonlight (Remus Lupin)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Sweatpants

I walked up to my dorm ready to pass out. I hadn't ended up sleeping at all when I was with Remus. Once we had gotten out of our bath, he read me the chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird that he was on. Between the bath and the sound of his voice as he read I was totally relaxed; it took all of my strength not to just fall asleep next to him.

When I reached my dormitory, Katie was the only one up there. This wasn't very surprising since I had passed most of my other roommates doing homework in the common room. I decided to try my luck and see if Eric had been able to talk her down.

"Hey Katie."

"Oh hi," she said without any hint of kindness.

I decided to keep pushing. "How are you doing?"

"Probably not as well as you are." She snipped.

"I don't know if you remember but I just came from detention."

"Oh I remember. And I'm sure you had a great time."

"A great time in detention? A detention I shouldn't have even gotten?"

"You slapped Tyler."

"He deserved it for calling me a whore!" I already regretted trying to talk to her, she was in a worse mood than I thought if she was defending Tyler.

"Well he wasn't wrong, was he?"

I cocked my head to the side, I must have misheard her. "Excuse me?"

"Whore's exchange sex for something of value to them, so I don't really see how he was wrong by calling you one."

"Fuck off, what are you even talking about?"

"I'm talking about how fucking Professor Lupin for good grades makes you a whore."

I felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out.

"And don't even try to deny it Vivian. Apparently you've been lying to me all year and I really don't care to hear anymore lies from you."

I took my wand out of my pocket, quickly pointing it at the door to lock it and casting silencing charms around the room.

"Can you tell me why you think this?" I said, picking my words as carefully as I could while trying not to have a panic attack.

"Well I thought about it, and I figured the only rational explanation for why you would come back in a pair of men's sweatpants after being gone all night, and then I would see Professor Lupin wearing the same exact pair of sweatpants, is if you were shagging him."

"Katie, lots of people have the same pair of sweatpants!"

She scoffed, "And do lots of people have the same pair of grey sweatpants with an identical, magic resistant, hot chocolate stain on the right leg?"

Well, she had me there. I felt like I was going to be sick. "Katie, it-" I took a deep breath to try and steady myself. "It's not what you think."

"Then what is it Viv!?" She shouted and I instinctively waved my wand to strengthen my silencing spells.

"You are right. I am sleeping with Remu- Professor Lupin."

Her mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide. I was beginning to think I should have tried a bit harder to talk her out of this idea. But it was too late now, I kept going.

"But I'm not sleeping with him in return for good grades. Or in return for anything for that matter. He's been very careful not to give me any kind of special treatment."